In 2015, entrepreneur Mandy Bowman founded Official Black Wall Street, a next-generation digital platform that has become known as the largest global directory of black-owned businesses. The company has now set its sights on making it easier to discover and support black-owned businesses.

Official Black Wall Street has launched its highly-anticipated app which combines social impact and tech by alerting users when they're near a black-owned business. The app will allow for people to easily buy black and circulate the black dollar. With the new app, Bowman said she hopes to give quality black businesses more exposure and encourage black consumers to spend their money within the black community.

“I believe it’s due time for us to make a conscious effort to buy Black. We’ve heard the stats that we have a $1.2 trillion dollar buying power yet a dollar only stays in our community for 6 hours whereas in Jewish and Asian communities, their dollar circulates for 20 days and a month, respectively," she told Black News. "With our current political state it’s becoming more evident that supporting black-owned businesses will allow us to vote with our dollars while strengthening the local economy in the black community.”

Some of the features on the app include searching businesses by category, location, open status and keywords, the ability to submit black-owned businesses, view all black-owned businesses around your current location on a map and leave business reviews.

“I believe the OBWS app is our first major step to creating a wealthier and stronger black community," Bowman said. "We’ve gotten feedback from so many Black business owners who saw positive effects from listing their business on our web-based platform. We’re excited to see the app take things to the next level.”

The Official Black Wall Street app is now available on Apple and Android devices.

Mandy Bowman

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